PREVIEW-Episode 18: Plato: What Is Knowledge?

Summary: On the Theaetetus and the Meno, two dialogues about knowledge.<br> This is a 34-minute preview of our vintage 2 hr, 18-minute episode which you can buy at <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/product/ep-18-plato-on-knowledge/" target="_blank">partiallyexaminedlife.com/store</a> or <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2010/04/20/ep18-plato-citizens/" target="_blank">get for free</a> with PEL Citizenship (see <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/membership" target="_blank">partiallyexaminedlife.com/membership</a>). You can also purchase the full episode in the <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/episode-18-plato-what-is-knowledge/id867696521" target="_blank">iTunes Store</a>: Search for "Partially Examined Plato" and look under "Albums."<br> We're returning to Plato for a somewhat more thorough treatment than we gave him in <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2009/05/12/part-1-of-episode-1-the-unexamined-life-is-not-worth-living/" target="_blank">Episode 1</a>. This should be considered part two (<a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2010/03/29/episode-17-humes-empiricism-what-can-we-know/" target="_blank">Hume</a> being #1) of three discussions intended to convey the main conflict in the history of epistemology between the empiricists (like Hume) and the rationalists (like Plato).<br> We slog through most of the Theaetetus, where Plato considers and rejects a series of mostly very lame conceptions of knowledge and replaces them at the end with... NOTHING. Seth is crushed. In the Meno, knowledge is "remembrance" (maybe), like anything worth knowing can't be learned but only elicited out of the depths of your unconscious.<br> Read along: <a title="Theaetetus" href="http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/plato_theaetetus.htm" target="_blank">The Theaetetus</a> and <a title="Meno" href="http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/plato_meno01.htm" target="_blank">The Meno</a>, or if you don't like the funky background on those pages, look them up via <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/p" target="_blank">Project Gutenberg</a>. You could also <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140444505/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=theparexalif-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=217145&amp;creative=399377&amp;creativeASIN=0140444505" target="_blank">purchase</a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1604507810/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=theparexalif-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=217145&amp;creative=399377&amp;creativeASIN=1604507810" target="_blank">them.</a><br> Seth did <a href="http://www.marklint.com/podcast/Meno_slave_diagram.pdf" target="_blank">this diagram</a> to express his love of the Meno.<br> End song: “Obvious Boy” by <a href="http://marklint.com/fake.html" target="_blank">Mark Lint and the Fake</a> from the album So Whaddaya Think? (2000). <a href="http://marklint.com/MLFalbum.html" target="_blank">Listen to the whole album online.</a><br>